03/11/2024
I offer the following Essay I just wrote to bring attention to how riding and handling horses can help those dealing with Trauma. It's addressed to my peers in therapeutic horsemanship service.
I don't purport this writing to be full of common truths. It is my truth, however. It might contradict the standard truths held by those with a higher education than I possess, but I make no apology for posting it.
We all know how reckless it can be to make sweeping generalizations about groups of people, so take the following written words with a grain of salt. In my personal experience I find the following observations to be true, more times than not. It all bears thinking about, when offering Therapeutic Riding and other Equine-Assisted Activities to those we generally refer to as the HEROES class. I hope to use this Essay, to prod a larger discussion. The contributions of others to this discussion may help to more accurately capture the essence of why this population benefits so much from time spent watching, brushing, leading, riding and caring for Equines.
I am not an academician, although I claim to possess a PhD. In my case, that stands for Post Hole Digger. I served as a homicide investigator in a large, west coast police department, then took the knowledge, skills and abilities I obtained to serve District Attorney’s Offices in two other jurisdictions. I specialized in investigating cases involving homicide, officer-involved-shooting, in-custody deaths, and felony cases of animal cruelty.
I found my passion for horses about a quarter century ago, and never regretted a single moment. I went back to college and obtained a degree in Equine Science, which I used to investigate animal cruelty cases for the District Attorney. I would very much like to un-see many, many things I encountered over the thirty-eight years I spent as a Peace Officer. Watching colleagues self-medicate themselves out of employment, suicides of those I highly regarded as pillars of strength, and how my own demons followed me through two broken marriages and made me someone not so easy to get close to.
After a Deputy acquaintance (someone very close to me through my second marriage) took his life, I began seriously questioning the cause of all this needless loss and failure. I saw how much I benefitted from my time with horses, and it didn’t take long to connect the dots. Horses (Equines), and those who provide equine based services are a homeopathic treatment that can be used to improve outcomes to those struggling under conditions that may otherwise tear their professional and personal lives apart.
Since my personal focus is on providing help to those in the HEROES Class, I offer the following observations about myself, and those who served in the military, other first responders, 911 dispatchers and emergency room personnel. In the cases of Dispatchers and ER personnel, I equate violence to the life-or-death struggle they endure to provide timely and effective help to those whose lives hang in the balance.
HEROES:
-are less afraid of violence than they are of people’s reaction to their violence. To them, violence is a tool. Others may see it as a loss of control.
-are used to intervening, and affecting a change. Instinctively, they move to protect others during a perceived crisis.
-are more often Type- A personalities. Teaching them to understand equine behavior is critical, in order to avoid having them apply more force to overcome resistance, when handling equines.
-have been taught to overcome fear by leaning into the threat, as opposed to backing away. They struggle with equines because they have been trained to overcome resistance with more force.
-watch, size up and make judgements as to others’ competency, motives and their place within the group, before deciding how to interact.
-can be stand-offish. Reasons for this may include processing internally before committing outwardly.
-oftentimes operate in something best described as *Condition Yellow. They never fully relax in people-settings. They are keenly aware of how quickly things go from calm to catastrophic. The calmer things are, the more they anticipate chaos.
(This constant state of readiness may make them seem aloof, stand-offish, uninterested, condescending, and / or judgmental. This is especially true when viewed by people who are empathetic by nature, who use the average person standard to hold them to.)
-can be very literal about following instructions, so you should use clear terminology as opposed to abstract terms or instruction.
(It’s very important to give them a healthy respect for equines right off the bat. They will relax and gain confidence as they apply what they’ve been taught, and see for themselves that it works.)
-are Critical Thinkers. As such they can be skeptical until you get their buy-in. If you don’t get their Buy-In, apply healthy doses of honesty to clean the wound with. Truth is the best disinfectant.
-rely on Trust, but trust isn’t given readily. If they feel they’re being baby-sat, patronized, talked down to, dismissed, given up on or other manifestations of poor communication, you will lose them from your program.
(On the flip side of the last comment, being concise, consistent and on point will foster trust.)
Setting your program up to succeed:
Set up reasonable and achievable goals, based on the individual.
Understand what, if any Triggers may affect those you serve. A reaction from a trigger, can look a lot like Fight or Flight, or both. Notice the two words are separated by one letter. The two responses can also be hard to differentiate between.
Equines are honest. They mirror our interaction with them by responding in kind. They don’t judge us in the same ways we judge one another. As such, equines see HEROES more accurately than most people do.
Realize that if someone you serve is under-performing in the beginning, they may change to high performing once you gain their Buy-In. Avoid judging them by your first impressions.
Remember they are every-day people. They come from the full spectrum of backgrounds, like all of you do. The difference occurred when they were trained to function effectively under stressful conditions, and they habituated that behavior through service. What challenges them the most in “civilian” settings, was what made them high functioning as members of the military, first responders, 911 dispatchers and emergency room personnel.
Post Traumatic Stress is often accompanied by the word Disorder. Is it a sickness to have survived (and even thrived) under repeated life or death events? How does society allow some of its children to take on these responsibilities in adulthood, knowing the likelihood of how it will result in some Disorder?
The dictionary defines Disorder as “a state of confusion.” HEROES were always clear about their need to perform under duress. The true Disorder is in how we treat them. I operate under the assumption that these folks are high functioning people, whose mission has ended. Now what?
I welcome them to give to me their time and attendance at Boots Off The Ground functions and premises. They have my respect, trust and affection for their selfless choice to serve. Rather than treating them for some “Disorder”, I will simply recognize what trauma takes from people, and find ways to replace what’s been taken with fellowship and understanding. Oh, and horses, bon-fires, questionably accurate “war stories” and…did I mention horses (equines)?
-Tim Dempsey, Boots Off The Ground
*Condition Yellow, in this context was coined by Lt. Colonel Dave Grossman, US Army Rangers (ret) in his Pod Cast on Sheep Dogs in society.
